A member of the United States Naval Academy freshman class crawls through trenches at the wet and sandy station during the annual Sea Trials training exercise at the U.S. Naval Academy on May 13, 2014 in Annapolis, Maryland. For 14 hours, the United States Naval Academy freshman class, also known as Plebes, worked as a team to complete many grueling physical and mental challenges that help prepare them for real-world experiences and reinforce leadership, bonds, trust, and teamwork. Of the challenges, they endured: a two-mile regimental run, ground fights, water tactics, aquatics challenges, and survival skills, amongst many others. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

A long skater speeds away on the rain-wet ice on lake Orlangen, South of Stockholm on December 15, 2013. Meteorologists forecast temperatures around 5 degrees for southern Sweden. (Photo by Tobias Rostlund/AFP Photo)

P.S. All pictures, as usual, are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

An employee dressed in a Santa Claus costume plays with cats at the Catgarden in Seoul, South Korea, December 14, 2020. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

“With the traditional tapping-ritual, the Oktoberfest has been opened on saturday, September 22, 2012. Despite the rather wet weather on saturday, the first weekend was te xpeted sucess: Approximately 850.000 guests from Munich, Bavaria, the rest of Germany and from all over the world came to visit the 179th Oktoberfest on the opening weekend. About one million liters of beer and about nine oxen have already been sold”. – Oktoberfest.de. (Photo by ◊CHЄЄKY◊MINX◊PHOTO◊DIARY◊)

A shrine maiden walks in the snow at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura, near Tokyo, Thursday, November 24, 2016. Tokyo residents have woken up to the first November snowfall in more than 50 years. An unusually cold air mass brought wet snow to Japan's capital on Thursday. Above-freezing temperatures kept the snow from sticking, but forecasters said there could be an accumulation of up to 2 centimeters (1 inch). The last time it snowed in central Tokyo in November was in 1962. (Photo by Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo)

This month’s selection of travel imagery mixes quiet moments and superlative views. The overall 2018 prize is a West Greenland trip with Wild Photography Holidays. Here: “This was taken on a safari in Kruger national park, South Africa. The scene was like something straight out of a storybook: a wild baboon, impala and elephant crossing the road together, all lined up neatly in a row”. (Photo by Will Clarke/The Guardian)

Daredevil Christopher Gillette writhes around with a huge alligator he has saved from death. He works at a Florida sanctuary that rescues the wild beasts if they stroll into neighbourhoods where residents can legally kill them. To raise cash for the centre at Homestead, staff put on shows to feed and wrestle the alligators. Photographer John Chapa, 41, and girlfriend Adriana Canargo, 30, took these shots. Photo: Assistant photographer Adriana Canargo dives with a wild alligator. (Photo by John Chapa/Barcroft Media)

A dead wild boar is seen during a hunt in Castell'Azzara, Tuscany, central Italy, October 23, 2015. Extinct across much of the country by the end of the 1800s, the number of wild boar in Italy has almost doubled over the past decade and there are now about a million roaming the country, environmental and agricultural associations say. (Photo by Max Rossi/Reuters)